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Narratives of Suspense in literature and cinema, comprising an introduction into narrative theory SLAV 26900 01 (CMLT 22100, HUMA 26901,ISHU 26901, ISHU 36901,SLAV 36900, CMST 25102,CMST 35102, ENGL 26901,ENGL 46901) Class times: TTh 1:30-3:00, Cobb 214 Two screenings: Monday at 7pm in Weeks 3 & 8 Instructor: Robert Bird |
Office: Foster 411;
W 3-4:30, Th 12-1:30
& by appointment Tel 4-2179
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Course Assistant: Esther Peters, empeters@uchicago.edu Texts available at the Seminary Co-op
Bookstore: John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps (Oxford World Classics, 0192839314) Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Norton, 0-393-96458-2) Italo Calvino, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller (Harvest/HBJ, 0156439611) Graham Greene, End of the Affair (Penguin, 0-14-018495-3) Fedor Dostoevsky, The Gambler (Modern Library, 0812966937) Fedor Dostoevsky, White Nights. A Gentle Creature. The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (Oxford, 0192838288) Vladimir Nabokov, Despair (Vintage, 0679723439) J. M. Coetzee, The Master of Petersburg (Penguin, 0140238107) Optional text (required for graduate participants): Roland Barthes, S/Z: An Essay, trans. Richard Miller, Preface by Richard Howard (Hill and Wang, ISBN 0374521670) Texts available on Electronic Reserve: Viktor Shklovsky, “Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery Story,” Theory of Prose, trans. Benjamin Sher, Introduction by Gerald L. Bruns (Normal: Dalkey Archive Press, 1990) 101-116. Tsvetan Todorov, “The Typology of Detective Fiction,” The Poetics of Prose, trans. Richard Howard (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1977) 42-52. Peter Brooks, Reading for the Plot: Design and Intention in Narrative (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1984) 3-36. Erich Auerbach, “Odysseus’ Scar,” Mimesis (New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1957) 1-20. Jorge Luis Borges, “Death and the Compass,” Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings (New York: New Directions, 1962) 76-87. E. M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel (NY: Harcourt, Brace, 1927) excerpts (44-53, 62-72, 98-99, 126-134, 140-145, 155-161). Alfred Hitchcock, “Why ‘Thrillers’ Thrive,” “Let ‘Em Play God,” “The Enjoyment of Fear, “Master of Suspense,” “Murder – With English on It,” “Would You Like to Know Your Future?” Hitchcock on Hitchcock (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995) 109-141. Graham Greene, “The Middlebrow Film,” The Graham Greene Film Reader: Reviews, Essays, Interviews & Film Stories, ed. David Parkinson (NY: Applause, 1994) 397-403. Jean-Luc Godard, “Strangers on a Train,” “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” Godard on Godard (London: Secker & Warburg, 1972) 22-26, 36-38. Noel Carroll, “Toward a Theory of Film Suspense,” Theorizing the Moving Image (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) 94-117. David Lodge, “Suspense,” The Art of Fiction (Penguin, 1992) pp. 15-16. Roman Jakobson, “Visual and Auditory Signs,” Language in Literature, ed. Krystyna Pomorska and Stephen Rudy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987) 466-473. Krystyna Pomorska, “The Structure of Prose,” Jakobsonian Poetics and Slavic Narrative: From Pushkin to Solzhenitsyn, ed. Henryk Baran (Durham and
London: Duke University Press, 1992) 3-12. Jean-Paul Sartre, “Why Write?” in “What Is Literature” and Other Essays, trans. Bernard Frechtman, Introduction by Wallace Fowlie (New York: Harper & Row, 1965) 32-60. Alain Robbe-Grillet, “On Some Outdated Notions,” “Riddles and Transparencies in Raymond Roussel,” Snapshots, and Towards a New Novel, trans. Barbara Wright (London: Calder and Boyars, 1965) 58-74, 97-102. Roland Barthes, S/Z, (New York: Hill and Wang, 1974) 3-31, 212-217. Teresa de Lauretis, “Desire in Narrative,” Alice Doesn’t: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1984) 103-134. Paul Ricoeur, “Life: A Story in Search of a Narrator,” A Ricoeur Reader (Toronto, 1991) 425-437. Paul Ricoeur, “The Human Experience of Time and Narrative,” A Ricoeur Reader (Toronto, 1991) 99-116. Gary Saul Morson, “Conclusion: reading Dostoevskii,” in W. J. Leatherbarrow, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Dostoevskii (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) 212-234. Books
on Reserve: Roland Barthes, S/Z (Noonday Press) Paul Cobley, Narrative (London, NY: Routledge, 2001). E. M. Forster, Aspects of
the Novel. Gérard Genette, Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method (Ithaca: Cornell, 1983). Gavin Lambert, The Dangerous Edge (New York: Grossman, 1976). Grading and Assignments: 1 short paper (3-4pp.*) due by Week 7 (25% each) 1 longer paper (up to 10 pp.*) due at my office by 5pm on Monday 15 March (50%) Attendance and class participation (25%) There will be screenings of Hitchcock’s Thirty-Nine Steps and Bresson’s Gentle Creature scheduled for Weeks 3 and 8, tentatively on Mondays at 7. All papers must be double-spaced, with margins of no more than 1”, 12pt. font. All sources must be referenced in MLA or Chicago style. Requirements
for graduate students: Please treat all suggested readings as required. Additional discussion meetings will be scheduled for Weeks 4 and 6. Papers should be approximately 50% longer. Assignment #1: Chart out the narrative structure of a Sherlock Holmes story or Hitchcock film, highlighting specific devices of suspense. What kind of suspense does the story achieve? What terms are used in the story itself to describe its narrative structure? Due January 26. OR Using Barthes’ S/Z as a model, chart out the structure of a single episode of Greene’s or Calvino’s novel, highlighting devices both of suspense and suspension. Does the suspension of narrative intensify or dissipate suspense? Due February 7. Assignment #2: You are encouraged to focus on a text, writer or theoretical issue from our course readings, but you are also welcome to address texts and issues which we have not covered. A list of suggested topics will be made available by Week 6. Due Monday, March 13, by 5pm in my office. Preliminary schedule Week 1-2: Suspense,
narrative, genre January 3: Introduction For January 5: Sherlock Holmes, six selected stories (on Web via Chalk, Course Documents): “The [Adventure of the] Speckled Band,” “The Musgrave Ritual,” “The [Adventure of the] Cardboard Box,” “The [Adventure of the] Dancing Men,” “The [Adventure of the] Six Napoleons,” “The [Adventure of the] Dying Detective” Critical readings by Viktor Shklovsky; Tzvetan Todorov For January 10: Borges, “Death and the Compass” (ER) Critical reading by Peter Brooks, “Reading for the Plot” Week 2-3: Screening
suspense For January 12 John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps Alfred Hitchcock, The Thirty-Nine Steps (screening times TBA) For January 17: Critical readings by Hitchcock; Greene, “The Middlebrow Film”; Jean-Luc Godard; Noel Carroll; David Lodge Suggested readings by Erich Auerbach and E. M. Forster Weeks 3-4: The Hideous
Narrative For January 19 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein For January 24: Critical readings by Sartre, “Why Write?”; Alain Robbe-Grillet; Pomorska and Jakobson For January 26: Barthes, “Death of the Author,” excerpts from S/Z. Separate
meeting for graduate students in Week 4 Week 5: The Erotics of
Reading For January 31: Italo Calvino, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller For February 2: Critical reading: Teresa de Lauretis, “Desire in Narrative”; Brooks, “In Conclusion” Week 6: Suspense and
Belief For February 7: Graham Greene, End of the Affair For February 9: Critical reading: Paul Ricoeur, “Life: A Story in Search of a Narrator.” Optional critical reading: “The Human Experience of Time and Narrative.” Extra
meeting for graduate students in Week 6 Week 7: Dostoevsky and
Suspense For February 14: Dostoevsky, “White Nights” For February 16: Dostoevsky, The Gambler Critical readings by Gary Saul Morson Week 8: Suspended Dostoevsky For February 21: Dostoevsky, “The Gentle Creature,” “Dream of a Ridiculous Man” Screening of Robert Bresson’s Gentle Creature TBA For February 23: Nabokov, Despair Week 9: Suspending
Dostoevsky For February 28: Nabokov, Despair For March 2: In-class screening of Aleksandr Sokurov, Whispering Pages Week 10: Suspending
Suspense For March 7: J. M. Coetzee, The Master of Petersburg March 9: Conclusion |
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